Using Stark Language

Leave it to Pete Stark to tell it exactly like it is.

Moderate Blue Dog Democrats ''just want to cause trouble,'' said Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., who heads the health subcommittee on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

''They're for the most part, I hate to say, brain dead, but they're just looking to raise money from insurance companies and promote a right-wing agenda that is not really very useful in this whole process,'' Stark told reporters on a conference call.

Most of the legislative process involves posturing. The Blue Dogs want something for their districts, liberals want to represent their constituents, et cetera. When someone like Stark cuts through the posturing and lays out its consequences, it's quite revealing. He's one of the few people who can say this. He also in the same interview called co-ops the equivalent of a "medical unicorn".